Le Lestranges
by IvybyMoonlight
Summary: Draco is torn away from his family 'for his own good', how can he cope with the Lestranges?
1. Chapter 1

Cinnamon, accented with lavender oil. Draco pulled himself out of sleep. He craned his head, trying to find his mother, she always used cinnamon. Cinnamon with apples in a pancake. This smell had to be coming from her. It was. He looked at her with his sore, hot eyes, trying to get his brain to work out why she was there.

"Honey?" her voice poured, lustrous into his sleepy ears, as his eyes focused on her face. "Honey, wake up?" Now he was conscious and suddenly aware of all the things that he had missed while he waking up.

His mother's face was taunt and anxious. As she gently pulled back the covers, he saw that her hands were shaking involuntarily. There were two points of pink in the middle of her cheeks and small tears were leaking horizontally down her face.

Draco leant forward to quickly brush them away. "Father says you're now supposed to cry." He whispered anxiously, trying to comfort her.

Narcissa composed herself, gulping and flicking a long strand of hair up into its original position, taking out from no-where a hand mirror.

"Draco," her voice was shaky, but firm, "Draco I want you to pack." She looked over at him waiting for the obedient 'yes mother.'

"Why mother?" the little boy turned his perplexed face towards her, _questioning her directions._

"Just do it!" she snapped, her face losing some of its kindness. Slowly, it seeped back, she looked down. "We're going on a little adventure, to Bella's, won't be lovely?"

Her voice was strained and Draco knew better than to argue. He busied himself with packing his clothes into his only carry-case, a black-wheeled _thing _that he kept under his bed. He used it often to go to relative's houses, especially Aunt Bella's.

"What about you mother?" he asked realising that his mother was still in the room, "Aren't you going to pack?" As he scrutinized her, he could have sworn that she had got paler as he had said it.

"N-no Draco," his mother replied carefully, then brightly, "I can borrow some of Aunt Bella's clothes."

S

Still uncertain, Draco finished packing. Slowly he walked up to his mother who led their way downstairs. When she turned around, Draco could see the purple of a newly formed bruise, sitting just underneath her hairline.

The hall was deserted, Draco could smell the musty odour that he always associated with his home. He couldn't smell the normal smell of breakfast, nor the essence of jasmine that clung to the air like velcro whenever his father passed. Something was wrong, why was it still dark?

Narcissa wasn't making for the dining room, she was walking speedily along the hall. Draco fought his carry-case, desperate to catch up. Where was father? Draco was beginning to feel frightened, wishing that he was back in bed.

Narcissa was holding her arm at a funny, Draco noticed from behind, tight, like it hurt. Draco could hear nothing but their faint footsteps and the rumbling of his carry-case along the cold marble floor.

He glanced up at the clock, seeing how it dominated the mantle piece, then rubbed his eyes.

2:35!

It didn't make sense. Mother was reaching for the jewellery box, up behind the clock, where Draco knew contained their floo powder.

"Mother, where's father, shouldn't he be here?" he asked in desperation. Narcissa slammed down the jewellery box, her eyes closed, breathing deeply. Why couldn't he understand?

She reached over again for the jewellery box. Her hand were trembling so much it was causing the jewellery box's lid to jump around, hitting the container repeatedly with little thunks that echoed menacingly.

Narcissa grabbed Draco's upper arm, no tine to be nice, "In. Draco. Now." She manoeuvred him into the grate, stuffing floo powder into the hand that wasn't holding his carry-case. "Father can't come, work matters.' Draco nodded. "Go on." Whispered Narcissa, "You know what to say."

Draco smiled and nodded again, his father had taught him.

"_Le Lestrages!"_


	2. So soft they could have been real

So Soft They could have been Real.

Draco couldn't breathe. He heard the familiar swirl of magic as he scrunched up his face to the soot and the heat. Just when he thought that it would never end he was hurled with a crushing force out, his hands raised to protect his face. Under him he felt the Egyptian rug.

He smelt the dusty smell that resulted from years of being neglected. Bellatrix never dusted, hovered or polished the floorboards. He wrinkled his nose up in distain as he opened his eyes to her dark living room. Imagine never cleaning!

Draco straightened up, flinging the dust off his pyjamas. Why hadn't he changed? He looked around, slagging off all the furniture in his mind, trying to feel better about coming here.

All the lights were off; surely Aunt Bella knew they were coming? He turned to the fire place to wait for his mother. That's when he saw it. It had to be the most beautiful thing he had seen in his life. The rose glistened, sparkling, even in this light. Made of glass, it was a gorgeous pink, its petals almost looked real.

It had leaves, the most sensational green he had ever seen. He longed to touch it, though he knew he would be in trouble if he did. He hadn't realised he had lifted his arm, before he was stroking those wonderful petals, so soft they could have been real.

A shuffling, he pulled his hand away fast from the rose as something ran across the floor. A rat.

Draco screamed.

The rat, obviously more scared than he was, stopped stock still, before making a run for the settee.

Shaking, he stepped back, grabbing his carry case. He could hear someone running down the stairs.

"W-who is it?" someone from the doorway called, "I-I'm armed!" Armed? What was happening? Didn't Aunt Bella know they were coming? He felt fearful, surly she wouldn't hurt him?

"It's m-me Aunt." Draco stammered, waving shakily in the direction of the door.

"Draco?" Bellatrix stepped out from the shadows, surveying him with dark hooded eyes. She lowered her wand in her white-knuckled hand. "What on earth are you doing here?" She sounded furious. Draco could feel a sinking in his stomach. Mother had not told Bella. He felt a sick feeling in his trachea. She didn't even seem to be coming, had she abandoned him?

"Mummy said we were coming to visit you for a while." He lowered his head the tears welling in his eyes were enough to make father scorn him forever.

Bella didn't speak. Then, "At half two in the _morning?_" she snorted. "And where is she now then?" Draco cringed at the sharp words that bought a whole load more tears to his eyes.

"Mama…" he whispered, "Mama…"

"She's not coming." Bellatrix sneered, "If I know Narcissa, she'll have forgotten you already." She smirked, seeing the look on his face. "You'll never see her again." It made her feel good to see other people look sad. Her jibes had always worked of her sister. It worked even better on Draco. He was so gullible. She surveyed the small boy. Lucius must have made his believe anything.

Looking at the small boy again, she didn't feel the same sense of satisfaction she felt when she normally taunted him.

"Come on." She mumbled, feeling slightly guilty, "Let's get you to bed."

Draco looked nervously into the fireplace, wiping away tears, "What if mummy comes?"

"She's not coming and you know it." Snarled Bella, losing her patience, "Now get upstairs!"

Miserably, Draco dragged his carry case to the door. He would never see Mama again. He would be stuck here, with all the dirt forever. He couldn't imagine living in this dusty place.

"Get a move on!" Aunt Bella snapped, inches behind him. "I don't have all night!" Impatiently, she pushed his aside and started up the stairs. "Come on!"

Aunt Bella led him to the room he usually slept in. It was pokey, a bit like a box, but it smelt better than the rest of the house. He hated the bumpy mattress and the single flat pillow. He had a sneaking suspicion that the covers were never washed, as he saw the stain of the hot chocolate that he had spilt there last time. This room was truly a dump.

"Goodnight." Said Bellatrix abruptly, before departing to her own room. Leaving his carry case leaning against a wall, Draco scrambled up into the lumpy bed. He supposed he lived here now. He sniffed, this was his room. Draco began to wonder if father really did know that he had come. Maybe Mma had secretly chucked him out. He yawned, settling himself down for an uncomfortable night.


	3. Aurors

'Aurors'

The lady moved around the house, searching. Something was missing, something was wrong. Where had she put her heirloom? She couldn't find it anywhere and was beginning to wonder if she had thrown it out.

It was a rose a Bellatrix loved it more than she loved any of her relations. The beauty of it she could not describe, it was so wonderful.

But now she had gone and lost it! She was in a state of panic. Where had she left it? Had someone taken it? In despair, she tried the bathroom, in vain.

Draco smiled and wriggled down more into the horrible duvet, clutching his prize in a small hand.

Bella went downstairs to make some toast. Her life evolved around toast, she was sincerely glad that someone had bothered to invent it.

Settling down at a grimy table, she looked through the dusty windows to see that it was already light. She was just starting to put some honey on her toast when she heard some noises directly above her.

_Aurors, _she thought and pulled her wand out from her nightclothes. She swept swiftly out the room and started on the second step, knowing the first one creaked. She smelt the rotten smell of Upstairs waft down as she ascended silently.

She reached the top, just as the noises seemed to stop. _The spare bedroom, _she thought and tiptoed towards the door. _On the count of three._

One. Bella put her hand on the door handle.

Two. She grasped her wand more firmly than ever.

Three. She braced herself as she flung into the room to a scream.

A little boy perched on the edge of the bed in the process of putting his socks on. On his face was a comical look of surprise, the traditional 'O' shaped mouth.

"Draco!" S_tupid titch, I forgot he was here! _"Draco!" searching for something to say on the lines of an apology, she just looked at him. How could she have forgotten? Stupid, stupid Bella! "Draco, I'm sorry kiddo."

He had got over his shock and now he was scowling at her. That scowl looked so like Narcissa's. She remembered how horrid she had been to him last night. No need to apologize again though.

They went downstairs to have breakfast. It consisted mainly of toast (a thing that Draco wasn't used to) and marmalade (a thing that Draco hated.) It was bad enough at home, when Narcissa insisted she'd make the marmalade herself, but now at a new house it tasted even worse.

"So kiddo, whatcha gonna do today?" Bella asked, not really interested.. "Why don't you play in the garden or," she searched for a thing that children are mean to do. "Eat beetles." She supplied, not sure why he would like to do this.

"Aren't you going to play with me?" asked Draco in a small voice, barely a whisper. "Don't you want to?"

Very tempted to say 'no', Bella said "Maybe." In way that signified that she would never do it, not in a month of Sundays. Apparently satisfied then, he nibbled on a crust of the toast that happened to be marmalade free as Bella decided whether she should communicate with Narcissa.

"Where's mama?" Draco asked, as if reading her thoughts. "Has she come yet, is she here?" He peered around as if expecting to see her behind the cooker, or under the disgusting rug.

"No dear, she said that," Bella searched for something that Narcissa would say, "She said that she'd come and see you soon. In the meantime, you're to be very good and eat you toast and marmalade."

"Ok." Said Draco, apparently satisfied. Then, "Did she say anything about dada?" he asked. Bella snapped round back into reality.

"What about Lucius?" she asked urgently. "What's happened, what has he done?" she reached over the table. "What has he _done _Draco?"

Draco went paper white. "Don't you know Aunty?" He whispered, "Didn't mama tell you?"

"Tell me Draco," she whispered fiercely, "Tell me what happened."


	4. Early Days

Early Days

"Didn't you know Aunty?" said Draco again, almost infuriating, as if he was dragging it out for effect. "Daddy got drunk!" he opened his little eyes wide and Bella almost sighed in relief.

"Is that all?" she asked scornfully, trying to stop herself from laughing out loud. "Grownups always get drunk, you silly little boy. Didn't you know that by now? I would have thought your alcoholic father would have told you!" then she really did laugh, it was too much, that little boy with big eyes looking at her like she was a lunatic.

"B-but," it looked like he was trying hard not to cry, "B-but mama's hurt d-daddy hit h-her and now h-her arm's brokened an' she all upset!"

Bella said nothing, except for muttering, "Stupid little boy."

Draco stayed inside all day. The garden, the one time he had seen it had been a rambling mess of weeds and horrible nettles. It smelt of decaying fruit, left in the sun for too long and it looked revolting.

It wasn't much better inside the house though, Draco reasoned. He was getting used to the smell (something he had never learned to do with the garden, but the _feel_ of the place was still wrong.) It always felt like someone was watching you, like Draco learned after breakfast, there was.

He had almost forgotten about Bella's husband, Rudolphus, who had taking to following him around the house. Rudolphus was exceptionally creepy, giving off a weird eerie feel, like a ghost. Wherever Draco went, it seemed, Rudolphus would be there too, like a stalker.

"Aunty?" Draco whispered, after several hours of being followed around the house. "Aunty, make him stop."

'Aunty' had giving him a severe look and stalked off to make lunch. That was how Draco spent his first day with the Lestranges.

On the night of the first day, Bellatrix talked to Narcissa about what she was going to do with Draco, she couldn't keep him forever!

"Cissa?" Bella asked into the house, as she stuck her head out of the fire in a extremely uncomfortable position. "Ciiiiiisssaaaaa?" then their little house elf had come up. It came up warily, because the last time Bella had come to their house, she had giving it a smack round the nose for not picking up a piece of stray chicken fast enough. Even thought the nasty lady couldn't hit him, her hands being at the Lestranges home, he kept a distance away.

"Hmmmm?" he asked curiously, peering over at her in a way that made him seem a lot taller than she. "What can I do for Madame Lestrange? Have you come to see the Master?" He looked down his abnormally large nose at her, "Dobby shall go get him, if Mistress Bella wants?"

Bella was about to say 'no', when she thought that it might not be a bad idea, seeing the one that caused all her sister's suffering.

"Yes. I would like to see him immediately, elf." She said with all the loftiness she could muster and waited as the house elf scampered away to fetch Lucius.

Bella looked at the stairway that ascended gracefully to the second floor. She observed the lovely cabinet that could have so nearly have been hers, if Narcissa had not been mother's favourite. Everything that she hated could be summed up in Malfoy Manor, the neatness, the inhabitants, even the cabinet, for she had spent many nights crying over the loss of it, to wake up each morning with puffy eyes.

Yes, she loathed everything, she decided as she heard the familiar sound of cane on marble coming to greet her. Lucius came into sight. If there were anyone that she would gladly kill if she had to pay one million pounds to do so, if she had to kill another of her most beloved relatives, that person would be Lucius Malfoy. To be ironic, she'd kill him with his own walking stick.

He stopped still in front of her, fixing her with a bloodshot eye. Bella could believe Draco saying that he had been drunk the previous night, she could see his swaggering walk and the way that he massaged him forehead.

"You've got my son." He slurred. "Gimme back Draco."

"You're drunk!" she said disgusted. "Two nights in a row!" this was a appalling, things were worse at home than Draco said they were! She should report this. They shouldn't have to put up with it. It was wrong.

"Go away, filth," he smiled, straightening up "Go away. I don't want you here, you, you…" at a loss of what to say as apparently forgetting about Draco, he lurched away, calling for the house elf to get him a brandy.

Retreating, Bella stepped away from the hearth to Draco, who was waiting on the sofa for the news. Bella looked at him, then was suddenly unable to look him in the eye.

"C'mon." she said roughly, holding out her hands. "I'll tuck you up into bed."


	5. She doesn't want me

She doesn't want him home.

Narcissa saw Bella's head appear in the fire. She was ordering the house elf about. It was not doing its work well. Her slim hand fluttered up to her mouth as she was frowned at by a charcoal head.

"This is about Draco." She said, as if to clear it up. "Let me speak." She added again, as she saw the Bella was about to yell out. Bella closed her mouth, raised an eyebrow and waited. "Things have been." She paused, "Hard, for Draco." She paused again. "We've been through a rough patch and I, - we think that he needs a bit of away time."

"And that involves throwing him at us, I presume!" Bella burst out, listening to Narcissa speak with boredom. "And Lucius wants him back!" she added, remembering her talk with him the previous night. "He knew nothing about it." She smiled up triumphantly at her younger sister. "He'll just have to come home."

"I _can't!" _wept Narcissa. "Don't you see? I'm getting hurt; it's not long before Lucius will round on Draco! A child of his size, he'll kill him!"

Draco was waiting on the hearth rug beside Aunt Bella. From this side of the fire, he could not make out the conversation, but something told him it burdened ill.

_I can't stay here, it's too different, _he thought, _mummy needs me to defend her against daddy._ The hearth rug was hard on him soft knees, and he felt that this world was so alien. He could almost remember the first time he came here. He had never gone out of his house before and he felt like he had stepped into a new dusty world.

_Little Draco stepped of the grate, his white- blonde hair streaked with soot. With all the dirt on his clothes, from the ride, he now fitted in perfectly with his disgusting surroundings. There was filth everywhere. It made him feel looking at it. It was _wrong. _There couldn't be a more disgusting place the Lestranges' house. _

Looking around now Draco thought that it wasn't entirely true. It was an alright house, if a bit dirty. The windows that he once thought were horrible and strange didn't seem so bad, apart from a layer of dust. He shook his head. _I'm getting drawn into the house, _he thought, _there's some evil power at work. It's everywhere. _He thought about it. It must live in the dust, he decided. Their house had no dirt; it had to live in the dust.

He turned when he heard a noise. Aunt Bella was turning away from the fire place to look at him properly, gravely. "Draco, I'm sorry, but mummy can't come for a while." She said, trying to sound nice, but failing through gritted teeth. "I don't like it any more than you, but there's nothing that either of us or anybody can do about it."

Bella thought about saying, so there, but it seemed childish, so instead of sitting there to watch his face crumple and the tears to swell. Like she said, she didn't like it any more than she did.

Bella called Narcissa every night using floo powder, to no avail, Narcissa didn't seem to ever want Draco to come back.

"This is getting ridiculous," Bella confided to Rudolphus that evening, whilst she was cooking a rather grubby looking pasta dish that smelt very garlicky. "She just won't take him home and I can't keep him forever!"

"Chuck him on the streets, cook him," another idea came to him, "Cook him in your pasta" he chuckled, "That would be funny!"

Giving him a withering stare, Bella turned to her cooking, which was unmistakably going brown. Draco had been a fat lot of good over the last few days. It was almost tempting to go up to his room (where he had been sulking for two days and shove him in the pasta sauce. He had been moping. It was driving her crazy, _and she couldn't get the pasta sauce to go right even with the stupid garlic! _She sighed. Garlic was supposed to make everything go ok.

Draco was toying with the rose. He didn't get how anything could be so beautiful. His brain wasn't up for it. It confused him greatly. He looked through the pink petals, looking around the spare bedroom, along the pink walls to the dark reddish curtains. Looking through the pink rose was calming. He breathed in and out.

A pinkish light flowed in through the open curtain.

"DRACO!" Draco looked around guiltily to the door. Aunt Bella stood there, trembling with rage, her hands on her hips. "How _dare _you touch that rose _do you know how much that MEANS to me?"_


	6. Brambles

Brambles.

"What are you DOING!" Aunt Bella was scary when she angry. Her face wasn't even red with fury, it was white with strange pink bits around her eyes. "How_ DARE _you take that! It was my mothers and hers before!" knowing this sounded cheesy, Bella flung her self at Draco to get her heirloom.

Before Draco knew what he was doing, he was throwing himself out the door, still clutching the beautiful rose. He couldn't let it get away! Hurtling himself down the stairs, knowing that this was going to get him into so much trouble, but not caring, he careered into the kitchen.

A very garlicky smell was coming from a disgusting pan, but Draco didn't stop to look what horrors Aunt Bella was cooking him tonight. He flew out of the back door and found himself confronted with the terrors of the brambly garden.

Bella was tired, she had only reached the bottom of the stairs, but already she was out of breath and loosing speed. _I've got to get out more, _she thought as she passed her now-frothing pasta.

She reached the back door, which was swinging on its hinges, just having a little boy through it. Draco was not in sight.

"Draco!" she called, "Draco you little weed _come back here now!" _Maybe not the best way to go about things. "Draco!" she called again, softer, "Draco, eh, _sweetie," _she grinned the nicest grin she could muster, "Come back _darling," _she hated herself for saying such nice words.

In the end she gave up. Draco wouldn't come out of the shrubbery. Giving up being nice, she shout some very abusive words at him and stalked off into the house. _He better not break that rose. _Draco didn't come back for supper. Bella waited three hours, always expecting to see a bedraggled boy emerge from the kitchen. Draco dinner, a very burnt piece of stuff, remained on the table, uneaten.

When bedtime came, Bella began to get worried. Draco hadn't turned up. What if he had run away. It was not Draco she cared particularly about, it was her antique rose. Shout all Narcissa liked, that rose was worth so much more than that thieving brat. Now he was in her garden somewhere, with her rose. But, she gulped, he could be anywhere, he could have run away.

Running a hand through her long, greasy hair, she thought things had gone far enough. It wasn't her fault he had run away, so Narcissa could not blame her, particularly as she had hoisted Draco on her.

Knowing that she could not leave her rose unprotected, she sighed and heaved herself up to go and find Draco. _And deal with him _she though.

Draco crouched in a thicket, thinking what would happen if his father saw him now, it would mean a week in darkness, at least. He looked at his hand filthy. He could hear Bella start to call again. She would catch up with him eventually, he knew it, and then he would have to give up his prize.

He looked at it. Was it really worth so much? Why had he done so much to have it? It reminded him of home. He remembered that Narcissa used to have the very same rose, a long time ago. He wondered if it was the same one. He heard footsteps coming towards him.

_No time for secrecy now _he thought and raced out of the bush, earning many cuts from the spiky branches. "There you are you mongrel!" shrilled a voice behind him, and he ran faster, the plant scraping at his arms. He couldn't keep it up. His tiny legs were tiring as he heard Bella crash through the undergrowth behind him, snarling like a wild animal, like a tiger.

At last he saw a ray of hope, he had been wishing would come. A small hole in the fence covered in moss. It must have been made by a badger or an animal. It was not on human make, that's for sure.

It's edges were rough, it would earn him more scratched, but he didn't care. He just wanted to get away from the alien house. Bella could see what he was aiming for. "Oh no you DON'T!" she snarled and lunged, only a hairs breath away from Draco.

_Oh yes I do,_ thought Draco as he made the hole, and started to climb through as Bella heaved herself up. "Come…back…here…" she panted, at the last of her strength and patients. "No…Draco...please…" Draco looked back once at his Aunt, seeing how her face crumpled. It gave him a funny feeling.

He looked her in the eyes and _sneered _at her.

That was the time that Draco changes. He felt a swell of ecstasy. _I can do anything I like, _he thought. He squeezed through the hole.

Rudolphus came panting after Bella. "Ran away then?" he asked, unnecessarily. "I told you that he should have chopped him up."


	7. Chapter 7

Bella looked through the hole in the fence where Draco had been minutes before. She had almost at once heard the scream that she knew would come as Draco fell down the slope at the end of her garden.

What now? She felt a rising sense of panic, wondering what Lucius would do when he found out that Draco had run off. _Stupid child, _she thought as she pushed past the brambles on the way back to her house. The glass rose…

"Arhhhh!" she shouted, realising that it must have gone down the slope with him. On the verge of tears, Bella almost didn't notice the sparkly object on the ground, shielded by a root. _My rose!_ There it was, a little dirty, but in one piece. She marvelled. How had it got there?

Draco screamed as he thundered down the steep slope. He couldn't hear anything except the rushing of the wind in his ears and the faint birdsong that flung itself at him and pulled back as he tore past, unable to stop at the tremendous speed.

_I need to stop! _He thought desperately, trying not to think what would happen as he reached the bottom. Get splatted probably, he conscience told him.

"Heeee_eeee_EEEELLLPPP!" he shouted, wondering when it was going to stop. Aunt Bella's house was situated on a big hill. Surely he would have reached the bottom by now?

He opened his eyes, unaware that he had had them closes as he had hurtled down the petrifying slope. Trees were passing him now, a miracle, he thought, that he had missed them all.

The last thing that he remembered thinking as he ended his fall was, _spoke too soon,_ as his skull collided with some very hard wood.

Narcissa was pondering. She now thought, a few days on, that it was rather rash and silly of her trying to foist Draco on her sister. What could Bella do that she Narcissa Malfoy couldn't? Bella had never even had a child, for goodness sake. What was she trying to achieve in sending him away?

Lucius had been terrible. She rubbed the sore bruise on her temple, the one caused by a certain walking stick. That had _hurt! _She hoped that Draco was alright. She knew that he hated visits to his aunts at the best of times.

This certainly wasn't a good time.

Maybe she should go and check on him, just in case. She heard a familiar clunking downstairs. _Chling! _She quailed as her husband's walking stick hit the cold marble of the hall floor.

She heard his neat, precise footsteps as he walked along. There was almost silence as Narcissa realised that he had started up the stairs, by the dull _thunk _of the stick hitting the carpet.

They became clearer as Lucius walked along the corridor. Towards her. Bracing herself for whatever was about to come, she heard the tapping as Lucius rapped on the door with his snake's nose.

The door glided open as he stepped in, a slight touch of irritation on his usually-calm features.

"Where's my son?" he hissed in clipped tones, narrowing his eyes at her menacingly, meaningfully. Resisting the urge to go 'temper, temper,', she merely shrugged at his annoyed expression.

"You know where." She said amiably, without looking at him. "He's safer there," she looked him in the eye. "Safer now he's not with _you_." She said the cutting words with all the spite she could muster and feel, knowing what would come.

As she predicted, a backhand came, swift, to land on her already-bruised cheek, she gasped all the same.

"I can't stand this any longer!" he snarled, hooking the snake's fangs securely through her thin cotton sleeve and dragging her after him through the door and along the hall quickly.

She winced as fangs ripped through her five galleon jumper, but didn't complain as he pulled her down the stairs.

"Um, darling, where are we going?" she ventured as he pulled her along the hall.

He stopped beside the fireplace.

"Le Lestranges." He murmured.


	8. The Circus'

Bella sat in the musty living room, wondering what to do. She thought about contacting the muggle police, but that would be stooping low. Anyway, she didn't care much for the boy, did she?

She didn't have much time to consider this, as her sister and her brother in law appeared in the grate. Lucius was looking stern and annoyed, like he had just been told he had come second place in something. Narcissa was looking anxiously down at her sleeve, Lucius' walking stick pierced right through it.

"I want him back, Bella!" roared Lucius, letting his wife go and sitting down, uninvited onto to the cleanest chair he could find. "He's been here long enough!"

Bella gulped, what could she tell them? "He's, err, gone…"she thought frantically, "to the, err, the… _circus!"_

Lucius raised a thin, sceptical eyebrow, "The circus?" he looked bemused. "On his own?"

He's gone with Rudolphus," Bella lied, hoping that Bella and Narcissa couldn't hear him shaving upstairs. "Draco wanted to go," she invented wildly, say after, loudly, to cover up the sound of the bathroom door opening up upstairs, "He wants to be in a circus when he's older," she thought, "to be a gymnast."

There was an immense silence in the dusty room. Bella got an unexplained sinking feeling. _Did I say something wrong? _She wondered, reading Lucius' stony expression, she knew that something had to be wrong.

She slowly looked around just in time to see Rudolphus finish the stairs and come in through the door.

"Uh-oh!" he said when he saw Bella's company.

"Bella," hissed Lucius, depriving form her expression, the truth. "Where is our son?"

The world was foggy. Draco couldn't make any sense out of it. His head ached and the world was swirling around him, like it was trying to taunt him. He didn't remember the long fall down. He didn't remember anything. What on earth am I doing here? Who am I?

He was slumped against a tree, miles of slope still to go. _My head!_ He thought. Draco was cold because it was dark and he only had a T-shirt and a pair of thin trousers on. They were torn and he had some scratches up and down his arms where brambles had clung to him. Not that he remembered that.

He tries to get up, having to stand at an angle, because of the slope, wondering how he could climb down it. He tried walking down, slipping and sliding on the crisp leaves that carpeted the ground. Eventually, he fell over and slipped down a way.

Where am I?

After much tumbling and sliding, he found the bottom of the hill. It was nearer than he thought it had been, hidden by all the trees that gave it a dense canopy. It was just as dense at the bottom, but he reckoned that there would have to be life somewhere around, maybe further on.

He felt dizzy, sick and woozy. His head hurt more than ever, hammering in his skull, not going away.

"Hello?" he called, not really thinking that anyone would be there, but all the sam , hoping. "_Hello?"_ he felt like he was going to fall over. The ground underneath his feet seemed to be rippling. The last thing that he remembered was falling asleep in a hut that overlooked a lake.

There was silence in the room. Bella seemed unable to look at the couple as she began to think up a new set I lies.

"_Where's my son!" _Lucius shouted again, springing up. Crossing the room in two strides he seized Bellatrix Lestrange and shook her like a rag doll. _"Where the hell is Draco!" _

He flung her aside, swearing audibly, waiting for the answer that he knew wouldn't be good when he heard it. _Bloody Bella! _"What have you done with him?" he muttered feverishly, returning to his seat and sitting on the edge, agitatedly. "You _senile woman!" _he shrieked.

Narcissa tried to calm him down. "Dear, he can't have gone far, only down the road, to the village…" she cut off, seeing Bella's expression.

"He," Bella started, "he didn't go down the road, _exactly." _She lookednervously at Lucius, then sheepishly back to her sister. "More like down the _hill._"


	9. A spotted crake

It was early morning. A bird watcher is going out to watch some birds, and hopefully find a rare one. There's a bird-watching cabin which he always goes to, so he's setting off for there. It's a jungle in the wood, with all the trees and shrubs. It doesn't take him long to find though cabin though, seen as he always goes there.

He opens the cabin door, shivering as he does so because the early morning air is so cold and he is met with an icy draft. He prises one of the shutters open, trying to be unnoticeable, so the birds don't all fly away. He doesn't notice the illuminated platinum-blonde hair that is getting lit up by the early sunlight.

Slowly, he takes his binoculars up to his nose, feeling as he does so that today is going to be a lucky day.

"Duck, duck, duck…" he murmurs to himself, trying in vain to see through a clump of reeds that he was sure had moved. "Goose, duck…"

At last he gives up, there seems to be nothing there. But then there is something among those reed, he sees movement. Brown, with spots, it emerges out of the reeds, unaware that it is being secretly watched. The birdwatcher breaths inward, flabbergasted at his fortune.

"Oh, oh, oh, _my!"_ he mumbles, adjusting his binoculars to focus more in. "Oh my goodness, it a, a, a _spotted crake!"_

He is so engrossed in this rare bird that he almost didn't notice the tug at his sleeve, willing him to look down. A little boy looks up at him, his eyes sincere and curious.

"Excuse me sir," he says solemnly, "but cakes don't have spots."

"So _this," _said Lucius curtly, "Was were you last saw the boy." Bella, Rudolphus, Lucius and Narcissa were crowded at the end of the Lestranges overgrown garden, all looking at the hole in the fence that Draco had disappeared from that night.

"Uh, yes," said Bella uncomfortably, realising the smallness of the hole in the daytime light. "He slipped out." She squirmed under Lucius' like a maggot on a fish-hook. His gaze swept back to the hole.

"It is very," he stopped to cough, "Ahem, _small."_ He remarked, like he was remarking on a house that he might want to buy, except it had an unacceptable flaw. "He's not that skinny." He stated, and then fixed Bella with a look. "Is he?"

"Your boy is seriously underweight." Chipped in Rudolphus, who, until then had not said a word on the matter. "He needs feeding up." He looked at disapproving look at Lucius, knowing how many days on end that Lucius would starve him to try to teach the boy etiquette. He remembered a time when he and Bella had gone to Malfoy Manor. Draco had smashed a glass ornament by accident and hadn't eaten a proper meal for two whole days.

Lucius met his look with stony silence. Narcissa remarked "We're straying off the sub_ject."_

"Of course." Hastened Lucius. "So he crawled out there."

"Yes." Said Bella and Rudolphus, remember too clearly the chain of events, the scream being the worst. "Aunt BE_lllaa_aaaaaaaaa…"

"And he fell down the other side." Prompted Lucius. It was really too bad that the Lestranges lived on a hill, he thought, pompously, hardly any of this would have happened if they hadn't.

"Yes." Said Bella again. Silly blighter, she added mentally, meaning both Draco _and _Lucius Malfoy. They really were too bad.

"And you didn't see anything else of him?" Lucius continued, aware of all the possible injuries one could sustain by tumbling down a very steep hill, he was wincing thinking all the broken bones when-

"_Yes!"_ said Rudolphus, "we've been through this already."

The wind swept by them, reminded them that it was cold out of doors. That was another disadvantage of living on a hill, they all thought. The wind was stronger and colder up high.

"Let's go inside." Suggested Narcissa.

They trooped back inside. Already they were anticipating a hot tea, or in the case of some, a hot cup of coffee. The atmosphere was understandably grim as they entered the house and Bella bade them all help themselves to biscuits as they got the fire in the living room lit. They all squirmed uncomfortably as they sipped and gulped down their hot beverages in silence.

"I guess we better find him." Sighed Narcissa, looking longingly at her empty mug, but seeing Draco's face in the back of her mind, lying in a ditch somewhere, hurt, possibly injured!

"Yes, yes." Said Lucius, but not impatiently as they all rose to their feet. "We'd better all go ask around, just in case."

So the two couples left their empty mugs and went to look for their lost boy.


	10. The House of top of the Hill

Draco looked over his mug of tea over at the middle aged couple. They looked back at him, at the bruises covering his face and hands (and probably everywhere else) and the rips in his well tailored clothes. They looked at his matted hair and his chipped fingernails.

'So –ahem- Draco, you said you fell down the hill?' verified the husband, Rodney. 'Why were you at the _top _of the hill, my I ask?'

Draco pulled his nose out of the cup of hot chocolate. 'I was falling out of the hole in the wall in the back of the jungle.' He said promptly. 'They were hunting my, but I stayed in the jungle and they shouted at me and I ran and I fell and I got scratched.' He lifted up his thin arm and showed them the evidence while he took a breather. 'I then I was unconscious and then I went into a cold hut and _then_ he,' he pointed an accusatory finger at Rodney, 'he said that cake were spotted. He shook his head at him and stuck his head once more into the cup of tea.

The couple exchanged a glance. 'Dearie,' Molly, the wife started, ' there's nothing up there on that hill, only brambles and wildlife.' She looked uncertainly at her husband who nodded at the young boy.

'Yes,' he said, 'it's true; there nothing on that hill.'

Draco pouted, not liking to be bested by anybody. 'There _is_! Aunty Bella lives up there with uncle Rudolphus!' he glared up at them. 'And the cat.' He added as an afterthought. How could these people be in total ignorance of his aunt and uncle? From what he'd gathered when he'd stayed up at the house the people that lived in the shadow were _ruled_ over by Bella and Rudolphus.

The couple, seeming to realize that Draco was never going to give in tried another approach. 'So,' said Molly leaning forward, 'How did you get to _be _ at the –err- _house_ at the top of the hill?'

'Well,' started Draco, his face gleaming with enthusiasm as he set himself to tell them all about his life.

.x.X.x.

Meanwhile, the Malfoys had started the long, cold trek down the side of the hill. So far, Lucius had sprained his ankle, which had caused the loss of one of his one-inch evening heels and Narcissa's dress had been ripped up to the point that it would be recognizable as a coat of fetid rags. And on top of all that, Lucius's cane had a think, even coating of mud and a scratch down one side.

'Do you know how much further it is, darling?' Narcissa called over to her husband over the howling wind. She duck, just in time as a thorny branch loomed overhead and tried to tear her hair from its pins.

'How could you _do_ this Narcissa?' was Lucius' only reply. ' If _you _hadn't given him over to that _woman_ and her grubby husband then we wouldn't be having our brain ripped out by thorns!' he slumped grouchily onward, slipped on the muddy incline and fell in a pile of what could only be manure (I wouldn't like to think _what's_ manure) and slid a few feet down. As an afterthought to what he had complained, he said, 'And they were my second best shoes!'

Narcissa, who'd recently just lost her shoe in a bit of bog, yelled back, 'Well if _you_ didn't hit me around, I wouldn't be afraid for Draco's safety, then I would have to give him to 'that woman', who _may I remind you, _is my _sister_!'

Lucius had no reply and they slouched down together in silence.

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A/N- I know its short, but it was the best I could do, after not updating for so long. Enjoy!!


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